


Of Demons

by 364_Unbirthdays



Series: Demon AU [1]
Category: Ensemble Stars! (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Demon AU, Gen, Platonic Relationships, characters and tags will be added as the story goes on, ofc there will be kogahina as bros later on, there will be a major character death later on, uh there's a bit of shumika
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-01-15
Updated: 2018-02-15
Packaged: 2019-03-05 01:46:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 11,453
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13377510
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/364_Unbirthdays/pseuds/364_Unbirthdays
Summary: Keito notices that his juniors are slightly more than a little weirdHinata thinks his seniors are stranger than he initially thoughtMika just wants to have a calm and peaceful life and doesn't know if he'll ever get it.Ensemble Stars! Demon AU, featuring the Holy(?) Trio.





	1. DEMONS [1]

**Author's Note:**

> HI, THIS IS UNO BRINGING YOU ANOTHER ENSEMBLE STARS FANFICTION!! However, this time, I'm not writing this alone— my friends Xynn (@Tokeii) and Tenshi (@ogamu_zaynshi on twitter) are helping me with this Demon AU!
> 
> Please note that I'm terrible at finishing chaptered stories, so you shouldn't get your hopes up too high *sweats*
> 
> Anyways, please enjoy!

It didn’t take him long to notice something was wrong with his junior.

Keito prided himself in being observant and quick to react while being sensible and cautious at the same time. It wasn’t exactly common for people to have all those traits. Usually passionate, hot-headed people would be the ones who reacted quickly, based on their emotions, and thus lack a voice of reason in their brain.

It wasn’t their fault, really… No one was perfect, not even Keito himself. It wasn’t as if Keito had no flaws.

He just trained. Trained and trained and trained, ever since he was very young, trained with his bow, trained his spirit, his will, and trained to be able to do his duty.

After all, Hasumi Keito was a demon hunter.

The Hasumi family had owned a buddhist temple for generations, and with it, came the duty of demon exorcism and hunting--the protection of the city around them. Every single member of the Hasumi family had the potential to become a top-notch exorcist or hunter, though it was usually an optional path to take.

However, this generation had some… _circumstances_.

To put it simply, another duty of the Hasumi family was to protect the children of the Tenshouin family.

The Tenshouins were a family of incredibly rich and successful businessmen--not only the main branch of the family tree, but even the entirety of the extended family were wealthy. Not only that, they were blessed with good looks and incredibly good luck, too- but it came with a price.

For some reason, every couple of generations, a child who is incredibly weak and susceptible to demonic poisoning and possession will be born. It’s not immediately identifiable--unlike in many other stories of “cursed” families, there is no way to tell if the child is normal or not just by looking at it--no marks on the skin, no abnormally-colored eyes, no deformed limbs either.

In fact, the only way to tell was the moment the child got sick- due to their sickly bodies, even a simple fever will take an agonizingly long amount of time to recover from.

It was either that, or wait until a demon attacked them.

…There was no way Keito would _ever_ let that happen.

Not when the cursed child of this generation was Eichi.

That was the whole reason Keito had to take up all that training-- spending long, painful hours each day strengthening his mind and body. It was all to protect Eichi from dying a death he did not deserve.

It was probably a good thing that Keito had been forced to sharpen his senses. After all, that’s what made him notice that something was wrong about that first-year boy.

It was quite a long time ago, when he first found him suspicious.

The situation was fairly ordinary, and happened very often to Keito, in fact. Oblivious and careless first-years, still figuring their way around this school, were prone to getting lost and crashing unceremoniously into their upperclassmen.

Honestly, it had happened to Keito quite often during the first couple of weeks. Usually the first-year who had bumped into him would stand up quickly, rapidly apologizing, and continue their way, embarrassed.

It didn’t happen for _this_ first-year.

It started out normally--Keito was just turning a corner, flipping through his student council notes, when, all of a sudden, someone crashed into him with a surprising amount of force- they had probably been running through the hallways, which was breaking a rule in itself.

The incredible amount of force had sent Keito toppling to the ground, stunned and not quite understanding what had just happened.

“...Er, S-senpai? Are you okay?”

The first-year awkwardly climbed off Keito, having enough decency to look embarrassed while bowing his head.

Keito nodded wordlessly, stunned by not just the impact but as well as the strange atmosphere. It was not like one of those shoujo mangas, but rather, something seemed… off about the other male. And Keito, for a moment, wondered if his eyesight were acting up when he caught glimpse of the first-year’s eyes.

“Your eyes,” Keito blurted out without much thought.

“Eh?! Haha, I’m just tired…”

The bead of sweat rolling down the first-year’s cheek was too well-timed. The boy recoiled from Keito’s mention of his eyes-- it clearly was a sensitive topic of some sort. “P-people say my eyes look really beautiful u-up close, hahaha… C-could it be, Senpai’s falling in love with me at first sight~?!”

“I see,” Keito wasn't sure what else to say to that… The joke seemed to be some sort of cover-up, maybe to help the boy regain his confidence or to serve as a distraction of some sort. “We--”

But before he could sternly remind the first-year that running in the hallways was strictly prohibited, the boy cut him off. “W-well, Senpai! I gotta go! I’m in a hurry, so…!”

“Wai--”

And so, he dashed off, leaving Keito stunned yet again. Keito quietly stood up, prioritizing focusing on that strange darkness radiating from the male over chasing him to pull him asides for a stern lecture about not running in the hallways.

“That first-year… Could he be…?” he muttered aloud.

Had it only been his imagination? Maybe it was a trick of the light?

Keito swore that the boy’s eyes had been a solid black.

 

 

Although he never actually learnt the boy’s name, he saw him often enough around school- mostly because the first-year had a considerable amount of friends and often got into trouble with the teachers by pulling pranks. Pranks that were a huge pain to clean up after.

What Keito did learn, however, was that the boy had a twin brother- a younger twin brother, in fact, who went by the name of ‘Yuuta’, as he learnt when he mistook him from the other brother and tried to give him a stern lecture about the time his brother had ran in the hallways.  
A younger twin brother, who had brilliant green eyes.

…Maybe the other time really had been a trick of the light. It was just too weird- why would one brother have green eyes, and the other have black eyes?

 _It’s called genes_ , the rational part of Keito said. _Even though they’re twins, it doesn’t mean they need to look identical in every aspect._

 _Shut up_ , the demon-hunting part of Keito spat back, and it ended there.

 

One thing about a duty that involves demon-hunting is that it’s really hard to do it in the day, and without anyone spotting you.

The simplest solution-- do the dirty job at night. Which is exactly what Keito did.

You see, Yumenosaki Academy-which was a relatively normal, though rather well-known, all-boys school-was slightly stranger than Keito would like it to have been.

He wasn’t sure if it was because of Tenshouin Eichi’s presence within the school, or if it was because of some other circumstances, but Yumenosaki Academy was filled to the brim with demons. Demons that could and definitely would harm Eichi if they were given the chance.

So Keito had to make sure they were never given the chance.

With the help of his father and grandfather, both of whom were incredibly good at making charms and barriers to ward off demons, he managed to set up a barrier around a couple of rooms in the school- one around the gazebo in the garden that Eichi loved to hang around, one around the classrooms, and one around a spare clubroom.

Not wanting to waste this chance, Keito formed a new club-- one specifically for the exorcism and the hunting of demons, to protect the school’s students, and, most importantly, Eichi from harm, and chose that exact room to be the official clubroom.

The name of this club was the ‘Occult Club’.

It was a perfect name, to be honest. A name such as the ‘Occult Club’ would successfully drive away anyone who was perfectly right in their mind, and for the strange few who were interested, they would never dare to approach the _vice-president of the Student Council_ and ask to join.

Furthermore, since Keito was the president of the Occult Club, he could submit the list of activities directly to Eichi, the president of the Student Council, and didn’t have to worry about anyone else looking at it and learning more than what they needed to.

No one ever laughed at his being in the Occult Club, either- no, they were much too apprehensive of those lectures Keito was famed for giving.

Since there were currently four members in the Occult Club, including Keito himself, he had drawn up a patrolling schedule to determine which member would come to the school at night on which day to eliminate the demons crawling around the school. They rotated the list every month as well, in order to “freshen things up”, so to speak.

Although Keito forbid any of his club members to go to the school alone at night-they must always come in pairs, to minimize the danger-Keito himself always came alone.

Demon-hunting was in his blood, after all. He was much more skilled than any of the other Occult Club members, and in addition to that, he always brought along many purification slips to ward off any demons who got a bit too close for comfort.

Eichi had always expressed concerned for him going all alone to a school practically infested with demons, and always tried to get Keito to bring him along to help, but he knew, if anything happened to Eichi, he--

He stopped the thought there.

Eichi always remained at home, and his home was surrounded by protective barriers. He was safe.

He had to be safe, or Keito would never forgive himself.

“....Keito? Are you okay?”

“Mmn…?”

Keito blinked out of his daze, suddenly coming to his senses. Right, he had been thinking about the Occult club and the schedule rearrangements and--

“Hello? Earth to Keito~? If you keep spazzing out, I’ll have to take away your rights to use the hot shower~”

“Excu- Eichi, you don’t even live in my house…!” Keito spluttered, his attention snapping back to the person in front of him, who was smiling cheekily. “How will you--do I even want to know?”

“Do you, now, Keito?” Eichi asked, grinning, and leaned forward as if to tell him a secret. He lowered his voice, cupping his cheek so as to prevent anyone from listening in. “Keito, for tonight, could you—”

“No,” he replied flatly, not even bothering to let Eichi finish his sentence. He could already tell this was a bad idea—if Eichi was actually taking the trouble to ask him, it probably was either something extremely important, or something that would cause him a lot of trouble.

Keito had a feeling it was the second one.

“You didn’t even let me finish,” Eichi commented, though he didn't look like he was put down by Keito’s rudeness. “It’s winter, Keito.”

“So what, Eichi.”

His tone made it clear he did not intend to listen to what Eichi was going to say.

“You know what it means. The school–”

“Will be swarming with ice demons, yes.”

“ _Keito_.”

Keito sighed, and rubbed his temple. “Eichi, how many times do I have to say that I will _not_ bring you to school at night just for you to see a demon? If it’s life-threatening for a normal person—”

“I’m not a normal person, though?”

“IF IT’S LIFE-THREATENING FOR A NORMAL PERSON,” Keito interrupted, ignoring the strange stares being directed his way, “then it would basically be suicide for you to come.”

Then, to placate everyone who was squinting at him strangely, Keito said, “Sorry, I’m trying to convince Eichi that bungee-jumping is not going to do him any good.”

“Keito—”

“No, Eichi.”

Eichi shot him a funny smile, shrugging his shoulders in one smooth action. “You didn’t even let me finish. I wasn’t even going to say that. Of course I know bungee-jumping’s not good for my h—”

“That’s not the point here.”

His childhood friend could be the biggest pain in the neck, sometimes.

“Of course, the point is that Keito worries too much, and I can take care of myself perfectly well.”

Correction: Most of the time.

Trying to talk sense to Eichi would do nothing. Keito sighed once more, and stood up from behind his desk, rapidly packing and zipping up his school bag, figuring he might as well go home for the day— not even Eichi would stay until nighttime. Not unless he wanted a bunch of his servants panicking and running around, looking for him.

...on second thought, that seemed like something Eichi would definitely do.

“Eichi, let’s go back.”

“Together?”

“I can’t risk you staying here until it’s time for my ‘club activities’ to start.”

“Because it’s something I would do?” Keito could hear the smile in Eichi’s voice, accompanied by loud rustling as Eichi started to pack his bag. “You overestimate me.”

“I’m fairly certain you would at least try, before you got bored and left,” came the curt reply, though it was laced with exasperation. There was no reply— Keito had obviously hit the mark, and that had been exactly what Eichi had planned to do.

The loud zipping sound indicated that Eichi had finished and was ready to go. The two exited the classroom in a comfortable silence, with Keito internally reminding himself to tell Eichi’s parents to keep an especially close eye on him that night.

The hallways were relatively noisy, however, with many of the first and second-years chatting casually around their classrooms. The canteens were even worse in terms of noise level--not only were there students hanging out, many teachers were currently having their lunch and were chatting as they ate.

Eichi excused himself to go to the bathroom, and Keito took the chance to sit down for a while and relax himself—tonight was going to be a long night.

“Huh?! Rumors of a ghost?!”

A familiar voice reached Keito’s ears, and he turned towards the source. Just as he had thought— the boy with the strange eyes was talking to his group of friends at a nearby table, his lunch in front of him, but, unlike his friends’ plates, it didn’t look like it had been touched.

“Yeah! Shinobu-kun told be about it— sometimes, if you come to school at night, you can hear footsteps all around the school and a lot of screams! Creepy, isn’t it?!”

“Tetsu-kun, there’s no such thing as ghosts!” the boy laughed, though he did look slightly uncomfortable. “Don’t you dare tell Yuta-kun about this, he’ll be terrified!”

‘Tetsu-kun’s eyes glinted mischievously. “I won’t-- if you go to school at night and confirm to me whether or not the rumors are true!”

“W-wait, Tetora-kun…!” a shy-looking, blue-haired boy interjected worriedly, paling. “That’s dangerous…! What if he gets hurt, or worse…!”

“Come on! It's just a ghost! Just punch it and it’ll go away!” ‘Tetsu-kun’ said, laughing.

Keito did not, in any way, think that punching a ghost would make it go away, and was about to tell them as such, when the first boy shook his head and told this ‘Tetsu-kun’ that breaking and entering didn't seem like such a good idea.

Thank god. He didn't want to deal with some silly first-year kid during his nightly duty.

“Hey, your plate’s full. Weren’t you complaining about being super hungry earlier?” another one of the boy’s friends pointed out, frowning.

Forced laughter. Keito couldn't help but feel slightly suspicious.

“S-sorry, I guess I lost my appetite,” the boy replied after a while, though he seemed to trip over his words. “Tetsu-kun can eat my lunch if he wants to.”

“Really? Nice!”

“Listening in to your juniors’ conversations, are you?” Eichi’s wry voice came from behind him, and Keito turned around rapidly to face him, flushing slightly. “Anything interesting?”

Keito stood up, swinging his bag back around his shoulders and shrugging it on, then started to walk towards the school gate. “Nothing much. Some kid just got dared to come to school at night, but it doesn't seem like he’ll do it.”

“Mmn,” was Eichi’s thoughtful reply as he followed behind him. “Keep an eye out for him, Keito.”

“Yeah.”

The walk back was comfortable.

 

 

Winter usually meant that there would be less demons to hunt. Most demons either disliked the cold or disliked how hard it was to grab ahold of their prey if it was wearing thick layers of clothing, and thus left the school or went into hiding. Of course, the ice demons would come out from the darkness of every corner of the school, roaming the grounds for tasty-looking prey, but there were never too many of them.

Key word: Usually.

The moment Keito stepped into the dark school, equipped with tags and purification slips and, of course, his bow, he could sense that something was different.

The number of demons had increased drastically.

Keito wasn’t sure when or how--God forbid--he found out how demons reproduce, but he was sure that he wouldn’t only be dealing with a small group of demons tonight.

In addition to that, if Keito concentrated hard enough, he found an inconsistency in the auras of the demons residing in the school. He had done this many times before-- but this was the only time such a dark, ominous aura was present.

A different type of demon?

He needed to be prepared. Not just for the demons, too, he reminded himself. That kid might show up.

Well, the kid might not show up, but something else certainly did. A scream sounded just down the corridor-- a guttural, high-pitched shriek, something a human would never had been able to make.

Keito adjusted his quiver, holding it carefully, and prepared to do his duty.

Just down the hall laid a gigantic tarantula-like demon, coated in white mist.

Honestly, if Keito didn’t have to kill it immediately, he would have spent some time appreciating its beauty. It was a shimmering light blue, every hair slightly transparent and catching the pale moonlight-- nothing like the hairy black spiders he saw so often in gardens. From its legs sprouted sharp thorn-like claws, so pale of a cream color that it looked almost white. All bright, eight eyes were focused on him, glaring, and if Keito wasn’t so busy getting ready to send it to hell, he would have realized it was a vibrant, crimson red.

Honestly, Keito almost didn't want to kill it.

Icy webs lined the walls of the hallway, sprouting from the tarantula’s abdomen, glinting in the moonlight. Keito knew how tough those threads were-- by the next morning, if not removed, the webs would still be there.

Too bad Keito would never be thanked for his hard work.

Keito pulled out an arrow, and tugged back the string of his bow, whispering prayer to bring the power of the wind to bless his arrow. He wanted this to be a swift kill. But of course, the demons of tonight wouldn't go down with a fight. When the arrow launched, the demon came to life, and roared, sending away the arrow from the shock.

A spider that roared and screamed? He hadn’t heard that one before. If God created demons, he was one hell of a creative guy.

The demon fired a web at Keito, and unfortunately, the web covered more areas than it was convenient for him. Rolling out of the way only resulted in him unceremoniously bumping into the wall of the hall, making it easy for the spider to fire its sticky, pale thread around Keito’s neck and limbs, immobilizing him.

The thread was freezing cold. Keito tried to shiver, then realized he couldn't move his shoulders or neck much.

….As if one mistake here was going to cost his life.

Even as the demon approached him, Keito kept his cool, taking short but deep breaths. He wasn't the leader of the Occult Club for nothing.

The tarantula-like creature came close to Keito, its shimmering hair catching the light and blinding him for a moment.

_You want to play a game, do you?_

Well, two could play this game.

Keito struggled under the web, his fingers reaching out and firmly squeezing a crumpled slip of paper from his pocket. With a short tug, he pulled it out, and—

— a firework of rainbow colors burst out, sending the tarantula recoiling backward into the wall. The slip’s effects melted away the web, and Keito was now free to do whatever he wanted to creature now that it was stunned from the shock.

“Goodbye… May you be reborn as a beautiful woman instead of a demon,” Keito said quietly, giving his final prayer before sending an arrow of wind blasting directly to the spider’s face.

As someone who studied the arts, Keito couldn’t help but admire how the spider just seemed to evaporate into blue mist, then vanish entirely.

Well, one demon down. How many more to go?

His relief certainly didn't last long-- his senses quickly picked up on something else, getting closer to him. The racket the spider had caused had brought attention to Keito’s presence in the school. Keito made a rapid turnaround, firing multiple arrows this time, the projectiles shining a brilliant green.

The arrows hit something, and that something revealed it’s form for only a moment-- an ice demon, momentarily losing control of their illusion from the pain of the impact. Great, this was why he _hated_ ice demons. They played with not only the body, but the mind as well-- their illusions were extremely troublesome to deal with. It was only okay if he was the one doing it, damn it!

Time to bring out the big guns. Keito stood dead in his tracks, only tugging at his arrow. He stilled his breathing. The air got colder by every single second. Keito knew it was approaching.

“Come to me,” a sickeningly sweet voice spoke to Keito. And now…!

“Only if you die,” Keito retorted.

In one smooth motion, he reached into his pocket and brandished out another crumpled slip of paper, thrusting it forward as fast as he could. With that momentum, he swung his arm up to cover his eyes as the paper ripped itself into smaller pieces and formed glinting, sharp shards which rocketed towards the demon and engulfed the whole hallway in brilliant, white light.

As the lights fade, the creature was sent slamming backward into the north of the hall. He only caught a little glimpse of the creature’s appearance before it turned to dust, but he could tell it was a snow nymph, a creature whose one half is of a beautiful woman, and the other half of a horrifying monster with sharp, cold sickles for arms reminiscent of a praying mantis, and sharp fangs. Once it seduced its prey, off with the poor man’s head.

And it clearly wasn't the only around this night.

A terrified shriek pierced the air around Keito, followed by thundering footsteps that soon came to a sudden halt, just around the turn of the corridor, startling Keito just enough to send his heart racing. Who was that? What was that? There shouldn’t be anyone in the school at ni—

The realization came in an instant, and Keito paled instantly.

Of course. He had been dumb enough to actually come.

No— He couldn’t panic, not now, not when someone other than his life was on the line.

First— identify the demon. Keito took quick, deep breaths and concentrated, and the chill immediately told him that it was yet another ice nymph. Good. They tended to take their time before killing and eating their prey— though one could say that it was bad manners to play with your food, Keito was immensely grateful for the fact that ice demons took pleasure in doing just that.

Second, scout the situation without being spotted. Now that he knew that it was an ice demon—and one that had trapped its prey, judging from the sudden disappearance of footsteps, no less—he was sure that it wouldn’t pay much attention to its surroundings.

In no way did at mean Keito could afford to be careless. If he let his junior die, and right in front of him— he would never forgive himself.

...though, judging by how much of a racket he had caused before, it was impossible for the ice nymph not to have noticed him.

Inching as quietly as he could towards the corridor, he could make out the demon purring in the midst of indignant grunts and yelps.

Once he pressed himself against the actual corner of the end of the hallway, however, what they were saying became much, much clearer. Keito internally thanked the gods that the boy had a very loud voice.

“Hey— Ow— Don’t touch me— _STUPID_ —!!”

Really? The boy was up against a real, live demon, and he calls it ‘Stupid’?

“If I didn’t touch you, the boy won’t come,” the demon purred, voice surprisingly smooth and sweet. “Don’t worry, although you’re not my main target, I’ll enjoy you as a sort of… appetizer before he arrives.”

“Ew!” was the disgusted reply, said almost as if he was talking about some creepy-looking insect. “That’s disgusting! Do you really do that? Ewwww!!”

Er.

What?

The boy’s tone seemed to have caught the demon by surprise as well, since it took a while before the demon spoke again.

“You… you’re surprisingly unafraid.”

A pause.

“Well, that’ll just make playing with you a lot more fun.”

“Well, it doesn’t look like you’re gonna kill me anytime soon,” came the reply, though Keito could finally detect the faintest shake in those words. “I figured I could use the relaxation before you start threatening me.”

Another pause, though this one seemed a bit more thoughtful. Then, “Wait, did you say I was an appetizer?”

The demon’s tone was rather startled, as if it itself had forgotten what it had said. “Why, yes, I did.”

“Oh.”

Another thoughtful silence. Keito did not know how to make his entrance without looking like a fool.

“Er, well, hurry up and do whatever playing thing you thingies usually do? I’m getting kinda bored.”

That, at least, managed to provoke the demon. If there was one thing ice nymphs hated, it was to do what someone asked them to do. Rather like Eichi, Keito thought.

“Do not,” it hissed, each word being spat out with intense hatred, “tell me what to do.”

Well, the boy was at least good at distraction.

White the attention of the demon was diverted, Keito leaped out, stringing his bow and releasing the arrow in the same motion, aiming for the demon’s head.

This one was faster than the next one. It reeled back, pulling the boy clutched in it’s cold arms along with it, and the arrow punctured it's left leg, blowing a clean hole in its body. The demon howled in pain, and, almost as if on cue, the boy clutched in its arm gasped and started to choke, suddenly starting up his struggle once more.

“You—! How dare you—!”

The demon managed to steady itself before Keito could string his next arrow, and faced him by the time Keito had done so. It’s human face had curved it’s lips into a wicked, teasing smirk, and the lower half of the demon had contorted into some sort of beta form, to make up for the loss of a limb.

Its ice sickle-arms immediately curled around its defenseless hostage- one pressing against the boy’s throat, the other against his inner thigh. It was impossible to try to take it down without the boy getting either killed or severely injured as well.

The boy looked like he was contemplating whether to try to remain calm or appeared visibly scared. The corner of his mouth was twitching violently, as if confused, and Keito noticed that he was wincing from the pain of having two sickles pressed against your skin.

“Let… him… go…!” Keito spat through gritted teeth, his fingers tightening around his bow, aiming it directly at the ice demon’s head. The moment the demon showed some leeway, he’d—

“And you think I’m dumb enough not to know what would happen after that? Don’t be so hasty, Hasumi Ke-i-to♪”

Disgusting. He wanted to wipe that line from his memory completely and throw it into the darkest and deepest abyss he could find.

Almost as if she guessed what Keito had been thinking, a wide smirk spread across her face, and she angled it away from him, bringing her lips close to the boy’s ear and dragging her tongue slowly against it. The boy gave a jolt of shock, flinching away from the touch as much as he could without getting his throat slit open.

….was it just his imagination, or did the nymph’s tongue turn…. black?

It drew away from the boy, and slid it's tongue back into it’s mouth— and started to choke.

Keito couldn’t help but stare at the demon as it doubled over, momentarily forgetting that it was currently holding someone hostage, choking and gagging, one sickle-arm covering its mouth. It must have tightened its other arm, from the sound of the boy’s gasp of pain.

But one sickle-arm was free, removed from the boy’s threat in favor of stopping the inky, thick black liquid-like substance from spilling out of its mouth.

After a quick, dim thought of ‘Is this how demons look like when they vomit?’, Keito let the arrow fly.

This time, it shot clean through the demon’s head— it had been too preoccupied with its retching to even notice or care. Once the head was down, the rest of the demon’s body froze and cracked, and eventually crumbled into nothingness, leaving for the boy—who had been, up until just now, held in the air by the monster’s arms—to shriek and drop onto the floor with a loud **_THUD_**!

Before he could check on the boy, though, Keito had to make sure the disappearance of the nymph wasn’t simply an illusion created by the demon itself. He concentrated once more, drawing out the his own energy to scan for the auras around him.

Luckily, it wasn’t an illusion. The coldness had vanished for the most part, but the dark, suffocating aura that he had sensed when he had first stepped into the school was back- coming from the place where the black liquid had spilled out from the demon and onto the floor.

How curious.

Keito wasted no more time in hurrying over to the boy, who lay on the floor, eyes squeezed shut in pain. A cut in the fabric of his long pants was visible around the inner thigh area- the demon’s sickle-arms definitely had cut into the boy’s flesh, and hopefully only just that.

It wasn’t until he came close to him that Keito realized that the boy seemed to be in much more pain than he had realized.

He was loosely curled into a ball, one arm clutching his inner thigh, the other on his mouth, panting heavily. The strangest thing was— he had appeared to have been perfectly fine right until the ice nymph licked him.

Either the cut on his thigh was much deeper than Keito had thought it was, the boy had contracted some sort of demon fever, or…

“You—Are you alright? If I remember correctly, your brother is Aoi Yuuta, so you should also be Ao—”

“Shut up,” the boy wheezed, voice surprisingly strong for someone who had suddenly become so injured. “Shut up, Senpai, let me concentrate, if not, I—”

If not, he… what?

Keito kneeled down next to the boy, rolling him over onto his fact, and forcefully prying his fingers off the sliced cloth. As he had initially thought- it was bloody, but the wound definitely wasn’t deep enough to cause any permanent or fatal damage.

“Hold on, we need to stem the blood,” Keito rushed to explain, taking out a piece of rag from his bag, which he had intended to use to clean any traces of demons remaining in the school and reaching over to wrap it around the boy’s leg, “Hold still, this will hur—”

“Don’t touch me!!”

The sudden shriek made Keito freeze, eyes widening in shock.

“If you… if you come close… I…” More heaving. “I-it’s all t-that stupid thing’s… fault…!! If it didn’t… then I…. I…..!!”

The boy’s eyelids fluttered and opened with another heaving breath, his eyes moving to the side to stare at Keito almost pleadingly. His hand was back to covering his mouth, and the other hand, which had previously been on his leg, clutched the area over his heart. He looked pale, extremely pale, brown hair spilling out around his head, and Keito wasn’t sure if it was just the trick or the light or—

The moonlight finally shone through the window and bounced upon the boy’s face, and he finally, finally realized—

The boy’s eyes were black.

Not just his eyes, but his tongue, too, which was barely but still visible from his slightly open mouth.

Not just his tongue, but the boy’s collarbones, too, where black markings peeked out from underneath the fabric.

Not just his collarbones, either, but the boy’s whole being now seemed to radiate darkness.

In that moment, Keito realized.

“Aha...ahaha… I guess… I blew it…”

The line was delivered in breathy, harsh whispers.

“Demon… hunter… huh…? Pretty impressive… Aren’t you, now…?”

“Don’t talk,” Keito cut in firmly, narrowing his eyes at the boy, who was obviously struggling— to stay conscious, perhaps. “You— Aoi, right? Calm down, I’m not dumb. I need to bandage your leg, so if you would—”

“If you’d let me concentrate…!” the boy shrieked, the pitch of his tone rising every syllable. “Let me regain my control first and then…!! Then you can do whatever you want.. to my leg… okay….?!”

Keito raise an eyebrow at the boy, obviously not believing him, and turned to the small pouch he had brought with him that carried purification slips and paper incantations— he was fairly certain that this boy was relatively harmless, seeing as he wasn’t able to escape from that demon by himself.

He should have brought along a power-trapping slip, one that nullified any sort of magical power for some time. Although he’d rather kill a demon outright, some were nimble enough to dodge his attacking incantations with trickery, and thus it made his job easier to bring power-trapping slips along with him— though they did take some time to take effect.

It took Keito a couple of seconds to find the light blue slip, and he pulled it out gingerly, doing his best not to pull out any of the other, more dangerous slips.

“Hold still,” he told the boy, who was still squirming on the ground. “It’ll be better after this.”

“Wha—”

Keito swung his leg over the boy’s body and pressed the slip onto his forehead firmly, ignoring the boy’s very loud protests, which included but was not limited to, “Go away!!” “Stop that!!” “What are you doing?!” and a deep, guttural groan of,

“ ** _G_ e** _T_ a _W **A**_ **y** _fR_ **o** M **_m_ E**!!”

It was only then did he notice the black mist that seemed to wrap and curl around the boy’s skin. In a flash, the black mist seemed to solidify, clouding together and condensing into the shape of an incredibly long arm and hand. Not only one, but two, three, four, five, and it was only then did he realize that these were coming out from the boy’s skin.

Not just his skin, either, it was leaking from the corner of his eyes, seeping through the gaps in his mouth, and emerging from underneath his clothes.

Before Keito had any time to react, they were there around him, cradling his head and wrapped around his neck and arms, crawling into his eyes and mouth and overloading his whole body with a searing heat that cause nothing but intense, fiery pain, and—

And only blackness was left.

-CHAPTER 1 END-

 


	2. The Fey

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mika wonders exactly what Aoi Hinata is.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> HAPPY CHINESE NEW YEAR/VALENTINE'S DAY! Now you guys know how long I take to write one chapter (lol)  
> This chapter's pretty slow, and it was super hard to finish it, but it reveals a lot of new things, so I hope you'll patiently read it through.  
> oh, and uh. there's a bit of hinted shumika, but if you're not into that, just try to bypass it, yeah?  
>  Enjoy!

**_Of Demons- Chapter 2: [The Fey]_ **

****

****

_Once upon a time, there was a little boy of around six years old._

_He was a kind boy, always remaining strong, no matter what misfortunes happened to him. And many misfortunes did, for this little boy had the worst luck in the world. But the boy remained strong, strong for the people he wanted to protect, and for himself. Yet the misfortunes continued._

_However, this little boy did have a gift, a little, shining light in the midst of all the darkness._

_He had clear sight._

_Now, that sounds unimpressive, but it really was something amazing. This boy not only saw what existed as a_ thing _in his world, he also saw what didn’t exist._

_That was, namely, the supernatural. Ghosts, spirits, fey and more. His clear sight was so powerful that nothing, not even the strongest illusion magic, could nullify it. In fact,he could even be considered as a threat to mischief-makers._

_In fact, that was indeed what caught the eye of one of the monsters of the night._

_One ordinary, dark night, it came tapping against the windowsill, white body glowing in the moonlight, sunken black eyes widened even more with curiosity, and long, pink ears twitching._

_It was a sickening creature, one that inspired no fear, but much disgust._

_The boy woke up and turned to the windowsill in curiosity, and recoiled from the sight of the ugly creature. After the initial shock, however, he realized that this creature was not here to prey on him._

_Tap, tap. The creature would not go away, even after the boy tried to ignore it._

_So, the boy walked up to the windowsill slowly, step by step wondering if the creature had a purpose for being here._

_He opened his mouth to greet the creature, and—_

 

 

Something was wrong with that boy.

 

The more Mika saw him, the more he was sure of it.

 

The boy in question was, of course, Aoi Hinata, a junior at Mika’s own school, and also his senior at work. Work at a café, in fact, though Mika never really saw the boy much, since he worked in the kitchen, while Mika strived to conquer his own inabilities to communicate with others by becoming a waiter.

 

How a sixteen-year-old boy managed to be put into the kitchen, he would never know. What he did know, however, was that Hinata _always_ seemed to be hungry.

 

And whenever he got hungry, something weird happened to the world.

 

It wasn’t obvious, but it was there.

 

The distortion.

 

It wasn’t just any sort of distortion- the whole world seemed to warp and drag around him, as if Hinata was pushing against it and pulling it along as he walked, thin, white strings wrapping around his every limb, as if trying to drag him back. Hinata did not shape the world— the world shaped around him, pushing against him, almost as if it was trying to keep him _out,_ trying to reject and deny him, as it once had done so to Mika himself.

 

And yet.

 

There was something about him— Mika had no idea what it was, but no matter how hard the world tried to make him miserable, Hinata never faltered. It should be painful, to have the threads of reality tightly wrapped around your neck, dragging back your every step, leaping at every chance to slow you down— but it was as if Hinata was being protected by all those attacks.

 

He had been so sure that there was no way Hinata was human, too.

 

The world rejected all that didn’t belong— anything and everything, and there were no exceptions. It had clearly been trying to reject Hinata’s entire existence, wrapping him in its threads and squeezing, almost as if trying to reduce him to dust—no, it would be more accurate to say that it _was_ trying to reduce him to dust, and yet—

 

And yet.

 

If Hinata _wasn't_ human, how was he so… unaffected by everything?

 

Mika didn't understand.

 

Really, maybe, he’d never understand.

 

It was a long time since the time he had been where Hinata was now, after all. He couldn't even remember clearly how he had been released from the threads that held the world together.

 

It was almost as if the memory had been wiped from his mind. He couldn't imagine the tightening around his neck and chest even if he wanted to, and only with some effort could he remember the scorning gazes of the people around him.

 

There had been a time where his sleep had been plagued with nightmares about those gazes. But now, he could barely even recall them.

 

The world was strange.

 

But Aoi Hinata, Mika thought dully, was stranger.

 

“Kagehira-chan~? Sorry, I’ve got a dentist appointment in, like, thirty minutes, so could you take over my shift to close up the café? I swear I’ll make it up to you!”

 

Mika stared dumbly at the woman in front of him, who had clasped her hands together in a gesture of pleading and squeezed her eyes shut, as if bracing herself for his answer.

 

He started to sweat. He didn't really want to stay back any longer than necessary— going back home earlier meant that he’d be able to see Shu for a longer time, yet he couldn’t bring himself to reject the obviously desperate woman.

 

“U-uh, Aoi-chan and the manager’ll be here, too!! You won't be closing the shop alone, so..!!” the woman, called Megumi, rushed out, taking his silence for one of skepticality. “Aoi-chan works like an absolute monster, so you won't have to do that much, anyways..!!”

 

He really wanted to tell her that doing work wasn't the part he minded, but the words wouldn't unstick themselves from his throat.

 

“O-okay, then,” was the only thing Mika managed to say under all the pressure. “Um, good luck for yer dentist’s appointment..?”

 

Megumi brightened up immediately, brown hair bouncing as her head jerked from its original bowed position.

 

“I _knew_ I could count on you, Kagehira-chan!!” she gushed, relief evident in her voice. “I’m so glad you exist! I owe you my life, thank you so so much!”

 

“L-life?” Surely the situation on her end wasn’t _that_ bad?!

 

“Yeah! Anyways, I gotta run now, so, uh, text me your next shift and I’ll take over it! Promise!”

 

He nodded dimly, and raised his hand as a sort of goodbye as he watched Megumi pick up her handbag and rush off.

 

She was like a storm, that woman. He couldn't understand how her mind worked.

 

Well, that was an early leave gone. Mika looked over to the big, decorative clock hung on the right wall of the café.

 

Six-thirty. A whole hour until closure.

 

He sighed. This was going to be a long shift.

 

 

 

 

“Thank you for coming!”

 

As the last customer left the café, a satisfied smile on her face, Mika pulled out a rag from his pocket and hurried over to the sink, getting ready to start cleaning up. The sun had set a long time ago— winter meant short days, after all, and the darkness was slightly unnerving.

 

He wasn’t a stranger to darkness, but it could be frightening all the same.

 

“Good work!” the remaining staff members called to their colleagues, all of them looking quite tired, but relieved that the day had ended. Mika couldn’t help but feel the same— there was a reason why he rarely asked for the shifts at the end of the day. In fact, more often than not, he was asking to _not_ be placed there— it was much more tiring and everyone was much more impatient.

 

While Mika wasn’t exactly the more bad-tempered person out there, even he sometimes wished that time would just speed up. He did, after all, have someone to see back at home.

 

“Kagehira-kun, could you go over and help out with the kitchen instead of the dining room? Since we want to start putting up our Christmas decorations, we’re getting Minami-kun and Kuroo-san to work in the dining room, so they won’t be able to take care of the kitchen like they usually do,” the assistant manager said, approaching Mika, a wet cloth in hand. “I know you’re pretty good at cleaning and you’re not clumsy, amongst other things, so I trust you to not break anything.”

 

His cheeks flushed lightly at the compliment and he nodded quickly, hurriedly excusing himself and making a beeline towards the kitchen.

 

He had been into the kitchen quite a number of times while working, but he had never really bothered to enter it after the cafe closed. While it was usually bustling, with waiters shouting orders and the cooks (or patissieres) preparing the items as fast as they could, after working hours, it was silent.

 

It was only natural, Mika knew, but it was odd all the same.

 

It wasn’t empty, make no mistake— in fact, it seemed to be even more cluttered than it had been at the start of Mika’s shift, at around 2pm in the afternoon. Plates were strewn everywhere, the ground was slightly wet, causing his shoes to squelch unpleasantly at times, and there was an alarmingly large-sized pile of cutlery to be washed placed in one of the counters at the corner of the kitchen.

 

Even then, it just seemed much, much larger without all the hustle and bustle he was used to seeing and hearing whenever he stepped in.

 

The kitchen was at least still brightly lit, though the fans were off, and there were two staff members diligently scrubbing the kitchen counters wordlessly, absorbed in their chore.

 

Mika didn’t quite know what to say to them, so he settled for going over to the large pile of cutlery and started to work his way through it, the gush of the tap calming whatever tense nerves he might have had.

 

He stayed like that for a while, diligently scrubbing all the whipped cream and bread crumbs off each piece of silverware, before his tranquil state was abruptly interrupted by a—

 

“Kagehira-senpai, do you need some help? Sakuya-san and I are done scrubbing the counters, and he says he doesn’t need any help washing the dishes, so…”

 

Mika flinched at the sudden interruption, his shoulders jerking up violently. Almost immediately, the threads of the world became visible, the layers of the world suddenly mixing and overlapping.

 

It was Aoi Hinata. He barely even needed to glance at the boy to see the thin cords of realty winding around his neck and curling around every single limb on his body.

 

It was disturbing and awkward to look at, and so he politely turned away to look at the knife he had been rubbing with the wet rag for some time, forcing his beating heart to slow down.

 

“I-it’s fine… I’m more than halfway done anyway, so…” He trailed off, not sure of what to say to get rid of Hinata. “The floor is kinda wet, so maybe—”

 

God, he was so glad that Hinata was quick to catch on.

 

“It’ll dry up with some time, though~ It’s not like the floor’s _dirty_ or anything~” the younger boy whined, picking one of the cleaned forks and twirling it around in his fingers before accidentally dropping it. Mika made to catch it in mid-air, but Hinata was faster, scooping it up with his other hand in one smooth motion.

 

“A~nyways!” Hinata continued, once again twirling the fork cheerily. “Let me help! We’ll get it done faster, anyways!”

 

Mika willed himself not to inch away from the boy, who had sidled up to his side and was squinting at the sink. Slowly, Mika turned his head and looked down at the boy, who had started cleaning the sink stopper with a sort of intense concentration that Mika didn’t quite understand.

 

As far as he could see, Hinata seemed to be completely human, and Mika could see quite well. Really, the only strange thing about him was how the world struggled against him—

 

Wait. What was that hint of black he saw, hidden under Hinata’s collar?

 

“Hinata-kun, do you…” Mika began, then paused to swallow nervously. After a moment, he continued with, “Do you… have a tattoo?”

 

Hinata turned to look at him, confusion flashing across his face, and asked him what he had meant. Mika didn’t miss the way his fingers tightened around the sink stopper ever so slightly.

 

“I thought I saw some kind of marking on your neck,” Mika rushed to explain, praying that he wouldn’t make _too_ big of a fool of himself. “I-I guess it was just a trick of the light, or so—”

 

“Oh! No, you were right!” Hinata interrupted, suspiciously eager to affirm Mika’s suspicions. “Could you, er, not tell anyone about it? Hasumi-senpai would _kill_ me if he found out.”

 

The wording made Mika squint in suspicion— and, for some reason, he felt like there was _some_ sense of truth in what the younger boy had said. Well, he did know that the Vice President of the student council was incredibly strict in upholding all the school rules, and angering him usually led to the troublemaker getting a long lecture from the said person.

 

 _I shouldn't think too much about it,_ Mika told himself firmly, shaking his head to get rid of the thought. _I shouldn’t think about it too much, but…_

Hinata, who had taken his shake of the head as a confirmation not to tell, relaxed immediately, looking rather sheepish, and carefully the sink stopper back in its place.

 

“Thanks, Kagehira-senpai,” he said, and a smile was forced across his face, hiding a flash of _something_ behind them, something Mika couldn't distinguish, and maybe something he _didn’t_ want to distinguish.

 

“Yer welcome,” Mika replied, and turned away, not wanting to see the threads of the world dig into the red flesh of the strange boy once again.

 

 

 

 

“Oshi-san, how do you tell if someone isn’t human?” he asked once, almost dreading the answer.

 

“What kind of question is that?”

 

“...Nothin’, I was just curious. You knew I wasn’t human when you first saw me, right?”

 

“That’s because your third and fourth eyes were quite plain for me to see, Kagehira. Additionally, you had just stolen my baguette. While invisible. Stop asking these kinds of questions.”

 

Mika found it vaguely amusing that it wasn’t the horns or wings that Shu had noticed, but his eyes.

 

Shu closed the book he had been reading, pushing the chair away with a loud screeching sound and got up. After a moment, he lifted the chair and brought it back under the table, frowning.

 

His fingers were slender, Mika couldn’t help but notice, then he flushed slightly at his own embarrassing thoughts and looked away.

 

“But what if ya hadn’t been able to see my second pair of eyes? Would ya still have been able to tell? I mean, just from my appearance alone, ignoring the whole…” Mika flushed again, remembering how their first meeting had went. “Um… t-the baguette thing…?”

 

A pause. He could hear Shu’s fingers tapping incessantly on the table as he considered the question.

 

“Perhaps,” Shu finally replied, turning away, tone thoughtful. “But that may be because I’ve always been able to sense the supernatural, and thus my senses are… heightened, so to speak.”

 

“Oh.”

 

Mika took a moment to tear his eyes away from the act of studying Shu’s face before speaking once more.

 

“Have ya noticed any… weird presences in school, Oshi-san?”

 

Shu’s gaze flickered briefly over to Mika, before being redirected back to whatever he had been looking at previously—maybe something beyond the window?

 

“Weird presences… there has always been weird presences in that school, Kagehira. You need to be more specific.”

 

“L-like—” Mika silently cursed himself for stumbling through the beginning of his sentence, and took a moment to reorganize his thoughts. “Like th’... th’ first year, Aoi Hinata, have ya sensed anything about him…?”

 

Shu closed his eyes for a second or two, before opening them once more— something of a habit that he had developed recently, that he did whenever he was thinking hard. “Remind me, who is this Aoi?”

 

“Th’ pink twin. The one who’s always hanging out with Hajime-kun an’ his friends.”

 

Now that he thought about it, did Shu even know who Hinata was?

 

Apparently he did, since Shu was slowly nodding— was that anger he saw on his face?

 

“Ah, yes, the… mischievous one,” the older boy said through gritted teeth, the calm in his voice very obviously forced. “He once put cherry jam on my croissant when I wasn’t looking… Very unfortunate for him, of course, but I’m… glad that I know his name, now…”

 

It might have been a mistake, bringing Hinata up.

 

_Cherry jam?_

 

Hinata might have been more courageous than Mika had initially assumed.

 

“His presence, Oshi-san! Presence!” Mika feebly reminded him, the urgent need to change the topic washing over him. He ignored it.

 

“...Ah, yes. His presence.”

 

Shu seemed to calm down, even if it was only for a moment, sinking back into thought. After a moment, he replied back with a ‘I’m not too sure’.

 

Huh. Similar to Mika’s own impression of Hinata… so it hadn’t just been his own senses failing him…?

 

“Oshi-san, y’ see, Hinata-kun’s working in the same place I am, and he was there today, and—” the words were tumbling nonstop out of his mouth, rushing and overlapping and tripping over each other, and before he knew it, he had practically spilled the whole story of his encounter with Hinata during closing earlier the evening. “He said it was a tattoo, an’ I don’t think it’s impossible, but—”

 

“Calm down and sort your thoughts before you speak, Kagehira!” snapped Shu, who had sharply turned to look at Mika, curled up on the couch. “If you keep speaking like that, no one will be able to understand you!”

 

Mika shut up and did just that. A moment later, he spoke again, but this time, his words were carefully, controlled.

 

“I-it’s makin’ me nervous, Oshi-san… I’ve never seen someone with the world trying to erase their existence, before. There’s something weird about Hinata-kun, and I don’t really want to know what…!”

 

“World trying to erase their existence…?” The phrase had caught Shu’s attention, and in an instant, he seemed much more attentive than he had before. “Kagehira, explain.”

 

Had he not explained properly before?

 

“S-so y’know how I can see the interlocking webs holding up the fabric of [Reality]...?”

 

A sharp nod.

 

“Whenever I look at Hinata-kun, I can see some of the threads just… pressing against his skin. Trying to pull him back. M-maybe even trying to strangle him.”

 

“It’s like he isn’t supposed to exist,” Shu breathed, eyes widening in realization. “That must explain the strange feeling I keep getting from him…”

 

“Strange feeling? Oshi-san, is what you feel from him different from what you feel from me?”

 

“You might be able to say that,” Shu admitted, and took a seat next to Mika with a sigh. “For one, yours was poorly obscured, Kagehira, similarly to a cloud covering the sun. It’s not unlikely for someone with the Sight to completely see through the magic that hid your horns and your wings.

 

But this Aoi… Instead of being hidden like you, his is more similar to being blocked by frosted glass.”

 

“I… don’t really get it.”

 

“You don’t have to,” was the light reply. “Kagehira, stop trembling. It’s making the sofa incredibly uncomfortable to sit on.”

 

“Eh? Uh, okay.”

 

Wait, how was he supposed to do that?

 

Shifting uncomfortably under Shu’s pointed stare, Mika decided to just get up and sit on the other couch, and he did just that, slipping the jacket which had hung on the side of the first couch on.

 

He couldn’t stop thinking about Hinata.

 

No matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t stop. It wasn’t any sort of attraction that was causing the younger boy to slip into his thoughts, no, it was more of—

 

Fear.

 

Apprehension.

 

Doubt.

 

All those and more, much more, and they never stopped building up against his chest, pressuring his head and eyes, and he could feel it, his carefully controlled vision spinning and overlapping, and _oh god what exactly is Aoi Hinata?_

He _needed_ to know, in case anything happened, no matter how nervous he was, no matter how much he dreaded the truth, because if anything happened to him, _if anything happened to Shu—_

“Kagehira!”

 

“E-eh? Wha’ is it, Oshi-san?”

 

Something warm pressed against Mika’s forehead, forcing him to lift his head and look up. He stared up at Shu, who had most likely walked over to him while Mika had been zoning out. Slowly, as if in a trance, he lifted up his own arms with the intention to pry the older boy’s palm off his forehead, but he could do no more than just hold it there, eyes locked onto Shu’s face, and—

 

“O-oshi-san, wha’ are ya doing?!”

 

Whatever spell that had been cast of Mika suddenly vanished. He flushed, fingers fumbling to pull Shu’s hand away, eyes determinedly searching the room to lock onto anything, _anything_ other than his face.

 

“Calm down, Kagehira. It’s troublesome if you overthink and ruin your brain cells in the process,” Shu said calmly, his expression firm and betraying no thoughts. “Go wash your face, then go to sleep.”

 

It was not a request, but a command. Mika lowered his eyes and nodded mutely, and gently slapped his cheek before standing up and making his way towards the bathroom.

 

Shu was right. There was nothing good that could come out of overthinking.

 

 

 

 

“I’m hungry~ I didn't eat anything for lunch, so now I’m starving~”

 

Mika sometimes wished that being what he was came with the power to mute others. It certainly would have come in handy at that moment. Aoi Hinata had been whining about it for an hour straight, and he didn’t know if it was because he had been living with Shu for the past few years, but he really wanted him to shut his mouth.

 

“Aoi-san, you’ve been saying for the past hour,” one of the cooks working in the café told him mildly, a bead of sweat on her skin glinting. Mika had no doubt she was as tired of the complaining as he was. “Your shift’ll end in an hour or two, so wait for a while longer, okay?”

 

Hinata sighed loudly, grumbling, and said, “But if I don’t complain about it, I’ll go crazy and eat everything I see!”

_I really don’t wanna know how true those words are,_ Mika thought to himself, shuddering, and bent over to carefully pick up the tray stacked with sweets to deliver to the customers at the café.

 

For how much Hinata had been complaining, he had still quite diligently did his job, he reflected, staring at the tall parfaits and macarons placed neatly on his tray. The boy was a self-proclaimed ‘sweets connoisseur’, and while Mika doubted he was actually that good regarding sweets, he couldn't help but admire every single meticulously placed sugary bead and star embedded into the white, fluffy whipped cream, which the café’s own staff had made.

 

When Mika first started working, Hinata had been the one to cheerfully approach him and offer to teach him some tricks in making food look (and taste) good. Soaking apples in salt water would stop discoloration, and the subsequent saltiness of the apples would enhance the sweetness of whatever treat it was paired up with. The trick to whipped cream was a steady hand and undivided attention.

 

...Now that he thought about it, Hinata might not be normal… in more ways than one.

 

 _What kind of scary monster would know so much about sweets?_ he thought mutely to himself, placing the parfaits down on the table with a nervous but friendly smile. _Hinata-kun doesn’t seem scary at all… Really…_

_But you can’t judge people by how they look._

He knew that the most— that sometimes even the kindest-looking people could be cruel.

 

...But it wasn’t Hinata’s apparent evilness that was the problem. He lowered his eyes and bowed, sweet smile still on his face, and scuttled back to the kitchen to bring out another order, ignoring how Hinata was once again complaining about how hungry he was. It was only when he heard the same cook suddenly exclaim in shock, did he perk his ears up, pausing in the middle of picking up a tray.

 

“...too dangerous!” she was saying, hands gesturing wildly. “Aoi-san, you can't!”

 

“Well, I can’t have Tetsu-kun calling me a wimp, can I?” was the sharp reply, laced with annoyance. “It’s not like it’s _cursed_ …”

 

“Kagehira!! Don’t make the customers wait for so long, you walnut!!”

 

“Eh—Huh?!” Mika cried, giving a start and nearly tipping over the contents of the tray. He shrieked, stumbling and staggering about to try to stabilize the sweets that wobbled around dangerously, and finally knocked onto the counter, where his heart managed to calm down and brain had been able to control his hand to adjust the position of the sweets. From the corner of his eye, he could see that the conversation between Hinata and the chef had been abruptly cut off, both staring wide-eyed at him, and he blushed furiously, praying they wouldn’t notice that he had been listening.

 

Ducking his head, he clutched the tray as if it was the one thing that could save him from the situation, and dashed out of room, cheeks burning.

 

“Kagehira-senpai! Your shoelace!” A faint call came from behind him, very much amused by the whole situation.

 

Mika looked down at his shoes to find out that, indeed, his shoelaces were untied. Momentarily forgetting that he was, indeed, holding something, he let go of the tray to bend down to tie it, then shrieked as the tray crashed onto his toes, sweets flung out of the tray and smashing onto the walkway, the shatter of glass echoing down the hall.

 

“Senpai!!”

 

“Kagehira-kun!!”

 

“KAGEHIRA!!”

 

The clamor of voices left Mika stumbling in a confused daze, head hurting from all the loud yelling, embarrassment rising up in his chest and up his face. It was chaos, not only outside, but inside his head as well. He could barely hear himself blurting out apologies as his seniors and juniors alike rushed to check if he was okay, and some unfamiliar voices belonging to the customers in the café mingled with the worried words that were thrown at him.

 

Hinata was huffing, coming towards him, a broom and pan in hand, and he was saying something, something like ‘And I thought _I_ was out of it’, a wry smile on his face, and, in Mika’s dazed, confused head—the black mist crawling over his skin couldn’t _possibly_ be anything but a hallucination—he could only think, _no, don’t come near me, stay away, don’t touch me—_

“Kagehira-chan? Are you okay? You’re, like, super pale.”

 

Megumi’s voice came almost like a wake-up slap. He snapped back to attention, blinking confusedly, and looked around.

 

It was quiet. Not silent, mind you, with the dully muted shouts and jolly clamor in the background as everyone in the cafe resumed their work, but all the noise that previously had been pressing against his ears, his mind, was all gone without a trace.

 

From the corner of his eye, he registered Hinata, a few meters say, dumping the broken shards of glass into the trash can.

 

“You’re in for a big scolding, Kagehira-chan,” Megumi was saying, a frown on her face. “Did you see the manager’s face just now? It was terrifying!”

 

“Mnnhyu…” Mika groaned, letting out a strange half-whine, half-wail. “I hope he doesn’t make me stay back….”

 

“G’luck,” Megumi offered half-heartedly, her expression telling him that she thought that there was no hope.

 

He sighed, shook his head, bending over to pick up the fallen tray and walked over to the other kitchen staff, apologizing for the ruckus.

 

He could faintly hear a “Anyways, like I was saying, Tetsu-kun’d kill me if he finds out I didn't go through with that bet…” in the background.

 

Mika grit his teeth and marched away almost indignantly.

 

 

 

 

 

He couldn’t sleep.

 

It was at least 2 in the morning, and, no matter how tired he felt, he just couldn’t fall asleep. He wasn’t usually like this— on normal days, Mika didn’t take long to nod off, but, for some reason, tonight felt…. ominous.

 

To put it simply, it felt like a bad idea to lose consciousness.

 

…. _Maybe I’ll go get a drink of water. I feel kinda muddled._

Dragging himself out of bed, he gingerly bent down and picked up his blanket, which he had somehow kicked onto the floor. He managed to stumble all the way to his door without tripping or bumping into anything, which was nothing short of a miracle, considering his current state of mind.

 

Fumbling with the doorknob, Mika managed to twist it and pull it open, rubbing his eyes to clear his vision. Not wanting to risk Shu waking up, he avoided flipping the light switch and blindly made his way downstairs to the kitchen.

 

It wasn’t until he finished pouring the water into a glass that he heard **it.**

A strangled cry, coming from upstairs.

 

_Oshi-san…!_

 

The glass smashed onto the floor in less than a second, contents spilling out and pooling around the furniture, abandoned completely as Mika desperately sprinted up the flight of stairs, heart thudding loudly in his ears.

 

Waking Shu up was the least of his problems. He grabbed the door knob and wrenched the door open, a loud slam echoing throughout the house as it crashed against the wall, but nothing could overpower the thundering of his heart.

 

_…….ah._

What he saw was—

 

“.... _Who…?”_

 

A harsh, raspy voice, but somehow familiar.

 

“You…!”

 

He couldn’t force the words out of his throat. He didn’t know where to look, and no matter where he looked, it was just black, black and black.

 

A monster, wrapped by darkness, stood in front of him— no, standing was not the right word. It was bent around Shu, who was fidgeting restlessly on the bed, very obviously sweating. It was hard to see the actual form of the monster— wispy black mist-like substances whirled around its body, and even it’s eyes, which reflected the light from the window just a little, were black.

 

Upon closer inspection, however, a rather… humanlike form seemed to be hidden under the blackness.

 

That was more terrifying than anything else.

 

“..... _Fey. No… Changeling.”_

It was spoken like a warning, and Mika stiffened. How, with just one look, could this monster tell what he was?

 

“What…” he managed to force out, unable to tear his eyes from the monster. “What… have you done with Oshi-san…?!”

 

He couldn’t see it’s  face, but he was sure the monster was staring daggers at him.

 

Slowly, carefully, it removed itself from Shu’s side, the black mass shifting to the side ever so slightly. It didn’t bother to reply Mika’s question, turning slightly to push open the window that it was near to.

 

...Was that a… human hand?

 

It leaped onto the window sill, black mist almost eerily still even though the breeze entered the room, gently blowing against Mika’s face.

 

“......”

 

Without another word, it disappeared, and no trace of the black, swirling mass was left.

 

“Wha…”

 

His knees buckled, and he collapsed helplessly onto the floor, pale.

 

_What…._

_What was that?_

_Once upon a time, there was a little boy of around six years old._

_He was a kind boy, always remaining strong, no matter what misfortunes happened to him. And many misfortunes did, for this little boy had the worst luck in the world. But the boy remained strong, strong for the people he wanted to protect, and for himself. Yet the misfortunes continued._

_However, this little boy did have a gift, a little, shining light in the midst of all the darkness._

_He had clear sight._

_One ordinary, dark night, **it** came tapping against the windowsill, white body glowing in the moonlight, sunken black eyes widened even more with curiosity, and long, pink ears twitching._

_And it was on a night, just like this one, that the boy, looking up at the strange little creature, took his last breath and died._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading this to the end! I really hope you enjoyed this chapter, and don't worry, Keito (and Shu)'s fate will be revealed soon :^) As always, please comment down below and let me hear what you think about this chapter! My twitter is @unbxrthdxys, and my discord is 364-Unbirthdays#4408... Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm gonna go and loOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOW HEI

**Author's Note:**

> THANK YOU FOR READING UNTIL THE END! I hope you enjoyed it! Don't forget to leave a comment to tell me how you felt ;D
> 
> Thank you, Tenshi, for writing the fight scenes for me, and thank you, Xynn, for the incredibly adorable art (which I'll be posting at the end of each chapter)!! Seriously, bless you guys.
> 
> As always, you can all come talk to me at @unbxrthdxys on twitter, 364-Unbirthdays#4408 on discord or just strike up a conversation in the comments section of this story! Once again, thanks for reading, and I hope you'll be back the next chapter!


End file.
